Comet C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy) - getting brighter

[starfinder]

Whilst most of the cometary anticipation has been focused on Ison, another comet, C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy), which was only discovered about 2 months ago (at mag 14.4) has already overtaken Ison in brightness (for the time being) and is now reportedly at around mag 7. Yes, it's the same comet discoverer as that Lovejoy of 2 years ago.

More info about this comet may be found here:
http://www.aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html
http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2013R1/2013R1.html

The light-curve in the webpage above shows that it is brightening very quickly.

Based on its current brightness, it seems that Comet R1 Lovejoy may reach around mag 5.5 at its brightest, which is quite decent. Hopefully it will continue to exceed expectations, who knows.

Closest approach to the Earth would be on around 20 Nov 2013 (about 2 weeks from now) at about 0.39AU: around that time the comet would be at its apparent brightest. Perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) would be on 22 Dec 2013 at 0.81AU.

Below is an image of the comet taken from my home in central Singapore this morning.

Date/time: Mon 04 Nov 2013 4:11am local time / 03 Nov 2013 2011 UTC.
Meade LX-90 8" SCT (f/10), Canon EOS 60D ISO1600 25s.

The comet was then in the constellation Cancer the Crab, at about 50 deg above the horizon in the ENE.

I also managed to view the comet in the eyepiece of the telescope with a 14mm XW eyepiece for 143x. It was a very faint barely discernable small fuzzy patch, yet I could tell that it was there for sure. Sky transparency was so-so.

Click here for much better images taken from darker sites:
http://spaceweathergallery.com/index.php?title=lovejoy
As can be seen from some of those images, the comet has developed a faint thin tail.

Keep monitoring this comet!

[antares2063]

Nice ! ...(dang..didnt know about this comet that night @bornfree and @Desmond_T)

[rlow]

Comet Lovejoy was observed with 10x42 bino and 150mm f/5 refractor @19x & 45x at Sedili Besar last Saturday 2 Nov 2013. Comet Ison was vaguely seen once with averted vision in 150mm at 19x but otherwise undetected as it was covered by thin clouds.

[starfinder]

Comet Lovejoy was observed with 10x42 bino and 150mm f/5 refractor @19x & 45x at Sedili Besar last Saturday 2 Nov 2013. Comet Ison was vaguely seen once with averted vision in 150mm at 19x but otherwise undetected as it was covered by thin clouds.

Hi RLow, good to hear about the observation of Comet Lovejoy! Can describe what it looked like in the eyepiece of the 150mm refractor?

Btw, I hope to view Comets Lovejoy and Ison around the weekends of Nov 16th and 23rd, either from Sedili or Changi beach. Jia Hao and i obbed at Changi beach (Carpark 1 area) a month ago: the view out to sea from NNW to ESE was clearly darker than in the other directions and constellation stars were bright and distinct. That's favourable for these two comets, though there is some considerable glow from the jetty and its surrounding buildings on Pulau Tekong.

[bornfree]

maybe Changi beach is a better location now.. @ ECP, the ships are very very close n very very bright.

[Gary]

@starfinder and @rlow - Congrats, good job and thanks for sharing the photo and reports!

[starfinder]

I managed to view Comet R1 Lovejoy again this morning, using the same setup. The comet was much more easily seen than it was 3 days ago. I'm not sure if that's due to better sky transparency or if the comet has become intrinsically brighter. The comet appeared to be a faint round greyish glow, similar to a globular cluster.

Btw, here is an interesting analysis of the comet:
http://kometen.fg-vds.de/koj_2013/c2013r1/13r1eaus.htm
"...Indicating a maximum brightness of 4.5 mag at the end of November."

But its not certain I think if this comet will ever have much of a prominent tail.

[Gary]

maybe Changi beach is a better location now.. @ ECP, the ships are very very close n very very bright.

Changi beach is not a better location. Been there last month after their renovations. The whole stretch is brightened up by ridiculously un-shielded and densely populated pavement lights. The light reaches almost to the sandy beach! It makes Toa Payoh Central looks like a dark site in Singapore!

[starfinder]

I have to agree with Bornfree that Changi beach is a better location than ECP (East Coast Park) beach in terms of the overall sky darkness out over the sea, esp to lower altitudes bec of the many bright ships at sea parked off ECP.

However, for higher altitudes, and facing the South, ECP (which faces SE) is better than Changi beach, because Changi beach (carpark 1 area) faces to the NNE and south of Changi beach is the airport.

As I stated above: "Jia Hao and i obbed at Changi beach (Carpark 1 area) a month ago: the view out to sea from NNW to ESE was clearly darker than in the other directions and constellation stars were bright and distinct. That's favourable for these two comets, though there is some considerable glow from the jetty and its surrounding buildings on Pulau Tekong."

JiaHao and I were actually quite impressed with the views out to sea at Changi of the bright pattern of contellation stars. It was a classic sub-urban type view of the night sky. We saw many planetary nebula through the 12.5" dob.

Whilst the pavement lights at Changi beach are an irritating distraction, they do not pollute the view of the sky out at sea. Anyway, can't compare Changi beach with Toh Payoh Central lah, it's like night and day.

I will elaborate later on about what I think are the general circumstances for comet viewing in Singapore.

[starfinder]

I managed to view Comet C2013 R1(Lovejoy) again this morning at 5.45am, for about 5 mins. Through the LX-90 8" SCT and a 14mm eyepiece for 143x. It was about 22 deg in altitude in the NE in CVn. Sky conditions were quite poor, but in a couple of minutes of reduced cloudiness, it appeared as a round greyish faint blob. However, with a Lumicon Comet (swan band) filter it was strongly enhanced, at least doubling in size and contrast to be viewed as a large globular cluster-like glow but with a condensed core, with a total width perhaps about an arc minute across. I understand that the Comet Filter works only on gaseous comets and not on dusty comets, or to be more precise the gaseous parts of mixed dusty and gaseous comets, but note that dusty comets are more common.

Comet Lovejoy is now estimated by other seasoned comet observers to at around mag 5.0.

I think if the sky was clearer it would have appeared brighter.

I can also make preliminary assessments of the effect of other filters, though the variable cloudiness hampered definitive conclusions for these: an OIII filter seemed to block off visibility of the comet almost completely, but an Orion Ultrablock narrowband filter improved the view somewhat vs. no filter.